php var_dump equivelant or print_r

Question

since I am using json, and ajax it's annoting I cn't pass the value on a valid json.

is there away to just return the value of var dump without it echo,being output to the browser.

e.g.

$data = 'my_data';
get_var_dump($data);//not real func
//should do nothing.
$get['data'] = get_var_dump($data);
$get['error']= false;
echo json_encode($get);
//should be something like 
//{"data,"string(7) my_data","error":false}

or the print_r equivalent I just want to to be assigned to a var instead of outputting it.

or if ur a wordpress fan, difference between bloginfo('url'); and get_bloginfo('url'); should make it easier :)

Answer 1

Sure you can! To do that you will need two PHP buffer functions: ob_start and ob_get_clean. The first one starts buffering, when the second is getting value and cleaning buffer. Example:

ob_start();
var_dump($array);
$value = ob_get_clean();

Answer 2

print_r has the option for a second parameter. When set to true, it returns the dump as an array instead of displaying it.

http://us2.php.net/print_r